memory
by Lulunoel
Summary: It's just a ghost of a touch that still lingers on her lips but it's enough for her to remember everything about him. My take on Clarke's journey back home and the struggles she overcomes. Bellarke and other pairings if you squint. post 2x16


This is part of a new series of one-shots that I'm starting. I stumbled across a 100 theme challenge a while ago and I decided to start it for the 100 fandom. All one shots will vary from each other and will be a mixture of AUs and the actual 100 universe. pairings will also vary, but I am a huge fan of Bellarke ;)

happy reading!

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11\. memory

It's just a ghost of a touch that still lingers on her lips but it's enough for her to remember everything about him.

Curly brown hair and dark eyes to match. Scarred tan skin and an impressive amount of muscle. A strength to lead a thousand armies and a gentleness to be a father to a ragtag group of haunted teens.

One hundred and twenty-eight days. That's how long it's been since she left and Clarke feels the pain inside her lessen everyday. This journey- it was not something she had wanted to partake in, but she knew it was a necessity. She needed time to come to terms with all she had done before she even thought of facing her people again and she knew her friends needed time to heal properly without having to look at the culprit of half their fears everyday.

She finds solace in the surrounding nature and finds a home nestled in the trees. At night she makes herself a makeshift bed between the branches, halfway between two worlds that were both once her home. For seventy two days it is just her and her thoughts and she thinks she goes slightly insane in that time but it's alright; she's healing too and if she needs to lose part of her mind in order to put herself back together again, then so be it.

She's used to Finn lurking in the shadows and after a month of traveling and his relentless efforts to make himself known to her at every possible second, she gives up and finally breaks down.

"I'm sorry," she whispers into the dead of night, her hands clutching her hair as if they are her lifeline, and the two words keep spilling out of her mouth like a mantra. He's watching her, silent as always, his back leaned against the trunk of a tree with his hands picking at the bottom of his shirt, almost as if he's bored.

"Luck is bullshit," he says suddenly, and it's the first words she's ever heard him speak. She wipes the tears from her eyes and does her best to clear her vision so she can properly see him. She watches as he pushes away from the tree and sits on the ground right in front of her.

"Bullshit," he echos. "There is a very thin wire between survival and disaster, and not many people can keep their balance on it. I fell off of it a long time ago, Clarke, and you need to stop punishing yourself for others' mistakes."

He gets up and presses a gentle kiss against her forehead. Her eyes stay glued to his back as he disappears into the cluster of trees.

She never sees him again.

She has nightmares most nights that cause her to spend the dark hours staring at the stars and sometimes the trees when her dreams involve the Ark. She clings to the nightmares, because without them she would have nothing all night long and then her thoughts would consume her.

On the seventy third day she clings to an old foundation of a decaying house as a winding cloud stretches from the sky to the ground, an unforgivable, raging storm that leaves a path of destruction and a scar on the Earth.

She finds that she and the storm may have something in common.

That's how the people find her- the _viento,_ they call themselves (she later learns this means wind in a pre-cataclysm language called spanish). They take her, drenched in sweat and covered in dirt, to their tiny village on the outskirts of a forest. They feed her and wash her and give her an extra pair of clothes which she is eternally grateful for because her clothes had been reduced to rags.

A woman, Aida, and her daughter, Elaine, are the two that find her and they are the ones who help her clean up. They ask her questions and she tells them what she can; her name is Clarke Griffin, she's eighteen years old, and she's from the sky.

They're intrigued and completely taken aback when she tells them this and she finds herself telling them everything, from arriving on Earth to the war with the Grounders to decimating Mount Weather. She does not leave out any details.

She tells them why she left her people and how she's not sure if she'll ever go back, a thought that had always lingered in the back of her mind but she had never really admitted to before then.

Aida frowns at her. "These people- it is obvious you love them and they love you, or at the very least respect you. How could you not go back?"

She bites her lower lip before answering. "I've just- all I've ever done is try to do what's best for my people. And I had to make some tough calls and do things in order to save them that can never, ever be justified. Living in a place- going back there where all the memories are- I don't know if it's something I'll ever be able to do."

Aida blinks and gives her a soft smile. "You are strong, Clarke of the Sky People. My husband- he died just three years ago when Elaine was fourteen. The memories of him were, still are, everywhere." She takes a breath. "It was my fault. I led a group of nomads back to our village because they had captured Elaine and it was the only way to get her back. We were ambushed and many of our people were killed. But I got through it because I was surrounded by people I loved. And most importantly, I gained their forgiveness."

Clarke has to blink back to tears because she understands. She knows the pain of having to sacrifice lives to save the ones you love and images of Tondc and having to make sure she protected Bellamy at all cost comes to mind.

"Forgiveness," Aida continues, "is like trust. Sometimes it is readily given, and sometimes it has to be earned. And even if you lose it, you can gain it back again. But you have to work for it. I learned a long time ago that running from my problems was not the solution. And I can see it in your eyes, Clarke Griffin, that you are a fighter."

She stays with them for three days before she decides it is time for her to continue on. She heads north and the next time she encounters human life it is a completely different scenario. She is tired and hungry and all around irritable and she doesn't realize what is happening until it's too late.

A man, about twice her size, has her pinned up against a tree, a knife to her throat. But his stance is off and it is obvious to Clarke that he is not a trained fighter. She manages to get in a kick to his gut and throws him off of her. He drops the knife and she does not hesitate when she picks it up and drives it into the side of his neck.

The man's eyes go wide as he falls to the ground, his hands gripping at his throat as the life drains out of him. The whole fight probably only lasted thirty seconds, but to Clarke it feels like hours.

She falls to the ground moments after he does and she scrambles backwards until she hits a tree. Her eyes don't leave the lifeless body.

Images flash through her mind; the grounder she killed while trying to escape, TonDC, Mount Weather, the charred bodies of the grounders and the lifeless eyes of her people. Innocents who lost their lives to her.

She doesn't cry until it's well into the night and the moon is high in the sky. She thinks she should at least climb into one of the trees because there may be others. But she can't get herself to move and so she stays huddled against the base of a tall oak. The tears start slowly but then they quickly escalate into gasping sobs and she ends up curled into a ball on the ground. She cries for the loss of the man, for all of her people that have died, and for all of those she has killed in order for the remaining 100 to survive. She cries for herself, something she hasn't ever done since reaching the ground, for being eighteen and being stripped of her childhood and her innocence. She cries and cries and when she finally lulls herself to sleep she has her first dreamless night in months.

She wakes up feeling strangely refreshed and her chest feels looser than it has in months. Finding a few flowers poking out of the ground, she places them around the body of her assaulter.

She leaves and she does not turn back.

One hundred and twenty-eight days.

On the first day of her journey she had stripped a piece of bark off of a tree and each day she adds a tally mark onto it to help her keep track of passed time. She is currently on her fourth piece of bark. The other three are full and stowed away in her backpack. She found it during her second week of wondering, after stumbling upon a bunker the 100 hadn't explored yet.

Her feet take her deeper and deeper into the forest until the leaves die and snow coats the ground. It's here she meets the Azgeda, the Ice Nation, and here that she comes closest to death. A small part of her, the part of her that is still consumed by all the lives she took, wishes she had died.

But she doesn't. One of the Azgeda, part of a hunting party, shoots her on sight. The arrow narrowly misses her heart, and luckily it isn't poisoned. She spends two days in a medically induced coma while they operate on her.

When she wakes, it is in a small hut lined with numerous furs. The medic signals at the guard and he leaves while the medic checks her wound and has her drink a strange concoction that burns her throat but helps relieves the pain in her side.

Returning as she finishes drinking what she assumes to be medicine, the guard leads a women into the room. She is covered with furs and her eyes are lined with kohl.

She sits next to Clarke in a small wooden chair and the guard and medic both help Clarke into a sitting position while the medic mumbles in broken English to not make any sudden movements and to try not to pull or stretch the area around her wound.

The medic exits the room but the guard takes his post back by the door, his eyes never leaving Clarke. The women, her eyes harsh and her features pointed, stare intimidatingly at her.

"I assume you are Clarke," the women says. Clarke nods and the woman gives her a small, but not very kind, smile. "You are lucky I recognized who you were. We don't take kindly to trespassers."

"I didn't know this was your territory," Clarke croaks.

"I'm not blaming you of anything, Clarke," the women says. "Just informing. You should be more careful. If I had not heard the stories of you leaving, you would be dead."

Clarke lets her eyes trail down to the floor. She doesn't like how the lady is looking at her, her eyes not shining with pity, but more like she is watching Clarke the way someone would watch a suffering animal.

"Where am I?" she asks, bringing her eyes back up the woman's.

"You have reached the lands of the Azgeda. I am this nation's queen, Echo," the woman, Echo, answers.

"I've heard stories about your people," Clarke says.

Echo raises an eyebrow. "I'm sure they're not too kind. But we are harsh because we have to be. And I do not agree with the commander's decisions."

Clarke doesn't reply, and she can't help thinking back to Costia and Lexa. _Love is weakness._

"The commander left you and your people to save her own," Echo continues. "It made some of us other leaders think. Most of the people inside that mountain were Trikru and Floukru, and she made the deal with the mountain to get her people out. She didn't hold onto her alliance.

"You and her had a great plan. And it would've worked. An army that size would've crushed the mountain in seconds. Yet she backed out and left you to obliterate a whole people."

Echo pauses, watching Clarke's reaction. She keeps her face calm, but she wonders where the Ice Queen is going with her story.

"The other clans are worried now. Lexa showed that she cannot keep her loyalties together."

"Why are you telling me this," Clarke asks.

Echo shrugs. "You ran away. I thought I would let you know what is going on with the clans."

"And what exactly is going on."

"Things are tense," Echo says. "I'm going to be honest, Clarke. I do not like you, or your people. You have caused a lot of problems for those of us already on the ground. But you did not ask for any of this. Anya should not have started a war with your people and you should've been smarter."

Echo hands her a small bundle, and when Clarke unravels it she sees it's a wool scarf and a pair of leather gloves. She gives her a questioning look.

The Ice Queen stands and looks down at the fallen Sky Princess. "We have our winter summit in a week. My team leaves in three days, and I would like for you to accompany me. Some of your people will be there."

"I'm not ready to face them again," Clarke answers.

"I do not care," Echo replies. "Bellamy is a strong warrior, but he is not much for politics. He is too stubborn, and the council does not understand our ways. You need to help your people."

"I can't," Clarke says, her chest tightening. "Not- not yet. I don't know- I just- I can't."

Echo stares down at her, her face blank and her eyes unwavering. "I will not force you," she says. "But you need to stop running."

"I'll leave tonight," Clarke says.

"No," Echo replies. "Two of my guards will guide you back East, towards the sea."

"Why?" Clarke asks.

"The Floukru are close to your people, and they will be much kinder to you then my people here," Echo says. "It'll be safer for you."

She wants to say no, but she's come to realize that she really has no place to go. She's wandering, lost- it'd be nice to have a place she could stay for a while.

"But why," she asks again. As much as Clarke would like to have time to settle down and sort through everything, she can't understand the Ice Queen's kindness towards her.

"Because I was inside the mountain," Echo explains. "I was the previous queen's second, and she died at TonDC." A wave of guilt washes over Clarke and Echo gives her a knowing look. "When the war with the mountain ended, I took over as Queen. Your partner, Bellamy, he was the one to release me from my cage. I didn't trust him, but I saw the fight in him, and I know there was once a fight in you."

Echo sits back down in the wooden chair, and she looks into Clarke's eyes. "I don't like you, Clarke of the Sky People. But you are broken because you had to save your people. I've had to make sacrifices, too. And as much as it may feel like you are, you are not lost and you can find yourself again."

It takes thirty eight days to get back to the coast. The guards know the terrain and they know the paths to take, but they take their time with her. The give her a bow and a sheath of arrows and teach her how to properly hunt. She already knows a lot of the plants, but they show her how to plant and which crops grow better in which areas. Before she leaves for their journey, Echo gifts her with new clothes, Grounder gear that keeps her warm in the snow, and a pair of new boots that repel the watery ice.

By the time they reach the Floukru, Clarke sees glimpses of her old self appear. She feels the life begin to stir inside of her. The voices of those she's killed don't speak to her as much and she doesn't feel as weighed down by their ghosts anymore. They're still there though, and she knows they always will be, but she's beginning to learn how to live with it.

It's freeing.

The Floukru don't welcome her with open arms, but they don't shun her either. Here, they have a Chief, a woman named Luna she remembers Lincoln talking about. She has blue spiraled tattoos sprawled down both arms and eyes that match the sea. Her husband is their people's main healer and they have two children; a girl, who will one day rule their people, and a boy who will take after their father.

The guards tell them who she is and why she's there, and they let her move into a small house- that's more like the hut she stayed in with the Azgeda, but it's _hers-_ and the Chief's husband, Sokan, takes her under his wing and lets her help out in their medical.

Life goes on, she learns. She delivers babies and helps comfort loved ones as they watch a family member or friend suffer. She finds a place amongst these people and she builds a life for herself.

Two months pass in a blink of an eye. It being winter means there isn't much to do, but she still manages to stay busy learning the land and the plants. She goes looking for art supplies and when Sokan catches her, he gives her a small smile and then makes a leather bound book for her full of empty pages, and gives it to her along with pieces of charcoal. She records all of the plants and herbs she can think of and their uses and draws pictures of each next to their descriptions.

The plant book gives her an idea and she asks Sokan how to make another book. He just shakes his head and a week later when she walks into the medic hut, he has a book ready for her and this time, there are little jars of paint and three paint brushes.

She cries when he hands her the gifts and he just shakes his head and pulls her in for a hug. She spends the rest of the day planning out the book on blank pieces of scrap paper and during a week of heavy snowfall that inhibits the residents from leaving their homes, Clarke lays in her bed with a fire going, writing in her book.

She draws a picture of the Ark on the first page, and she writes about her life on it-her father's discovery, her mother's betrayal, Wells, being arrested, and the months she spent in solitude thinking she would die on her eighteenth birthday before being sent to the ground.

She draws the dropship next, and the first view she had of Earth and feeling the sun when the doors first opened. She writes of the kids excitement, and of the two boys who never got to see Earth because they died on the way down. She explains how Bellamy took over and how he was an ass and how much she hated Wells because she thought he betrayed her. She writes about Finn and Octavia and Jasper and Monty and how carefree they all were in their first moments on the ground.

Then comes the hard part. She draws Wells and talks about his death and finding out that he hadn't betrayed her and how he died before she could make things right between them. Charlotte's drawing follows and she writes about how she sacrificed herself because she thought she was saving Clarke. She writes about Murphy and his part in her death and how her and Bellamy finally came together to lead their people.

She draws them all. All of the people she watched die, Grounders and Mountain Men included and for each drawing she writes. It helps her heal and the last pieces of her soul fall back into place.

She's been gone for a total of seven months. Winter has given way to spring and the Coalition of Grounders is once again meeting for the Spring Equinox. Luna invites her along, and Clarke finally feels ready to face her people again.

She packs the backpack she started her journey with, with an extra pair of clothes, a few plants, and her two books and art supplies.

The journey takes close to a week on horseback. Riding through the forest and feeling the wind whip through her hair is exhilarating and lets herself smile as she glides through the trees.

The meeting is at the newly rebuilt TonDC. It hurts her slightly to be back there, but then she sees the memorial for all the people who lost their lives and she knows that these people have managed to move on also.

The Skikru arrive a day later, and she's not surprised when their little band of people don't outright recognize her. She could hardly recognize herself when she finally looked in a mirror. Her hair, much longer than before, is down to the middle of her back and little braid are woven throughout it. She wears it half up half down, intricate braids keeping her hair in place like the other grounders, and war paint lines her cheekbones and the top half of her eyes. She's dressed in traditional Grounder clothing and she carries the bow and arrows the Azgeda guards had gifted her.

It's Octavia who first spots her, and the younger girl's eyes narrow as she puts together the pieces. She turns to her brother, and Clarke sees Bellamy for the first time in over half a year. He looks stronger, but even from here Clarke can see the hard lines on his face and the clouded look he sports. Her heart pangs at how worn out and beaten down he looks, but then she sees Jasper and he's smiling at Monty and they both look like they've gained weight and muscle and she knows that leaving was worth it.

They don't approach her, not until the next day. Later in the night, the rest of the Skikru's group arrives. The first string had been Bellamy, Octavia, Jasper, Monty, and Miller, and following them is her own mother, Kane, Miller's father, and Sterling. When all the tents are set up and everyone has settled down for the night, she heads to her mother's tent.

It takes Abby a second to recognize her, but she would never forget her daughter's eyes. Seeing a light them that she hadn't seen in long time, she clings to her daughter as tears stream down her face.

"Hi mom," Clarke whispers into her mother's shoulder.

Her mother sniffles and lets out a small laugh and leans out of their embrace so she can look at her daugher.

"You look so different," Abby says. "But good. You look- you look alive again. Stronger."

"You all look stronger," Clarke says. "It looks like things have been good."

"It's been hard," Abby says, guiding her daughter down to the bundle of blankets on the ground so they can sit. "But we've survived. Winter was hardest, but we made new alliances with the Grounders. We're in the process right now of becoming the thirteenth clan of the Coalition."

Clarke blinks and hugs her mother again. "That's- that's good."

"How about you?" Abby asks. "What're you doing here?"

Clarke gives her mother a small smile. "I thought it was time to come back. I want to come home Mom."

Abby lets out a little sob and grips Clarke's hand. "I'm so glad. I-we all want you back Clarke."

She talks with her mother a little longer before she slips out and begins making her way back to the Floukru's section of TonDC.

"Isn't it a little late to be out, Princess?"

She whips around and finds Bellamy sitting by a fire that all the Skikru's tents are surrounding. He's sitting on a log and a bottle of what she assumes to be Moonshine lays on the log beside him. He's frowning at her and his eyes are furrowed together and she can tell he's not in his best state of mind.

"It's not like we're at war anymore," Clarke says.

Bellamy snorts."Like you'd know. Running around with your new little Grounder clan, ignoring everything."

"I'm trying here, Bellamy."

He huffs and leans back onto his hands. "You didn't try hard enough to stay."

She shoots him a glare but then puts back on a neutral face when she sees the troubled look in his eyes. His face looks harder and his eyes are haunted. She ran away to fix herself and her problems, but he had to put on a facade and pick up the pieces she left behind.

"I'm going to bed. Goodnight Bellamy," she says, turning and walking away.

"'Night Princess."

He's sober the next morning but his bitterness towards her is the same. Monty greets her with a hug and even Jasper wraps his arms around her. The Blakes, on the other hand, are not as welcoming.

She spends time with her Mother. She doesn't go to the meetings between the leaders, but she does join in on the festivities. She stays close to Luna and Nola, Luna's second, and celebrates to a new a spring, and a new beginning.

By the end of the week, she wants to go back with her mother, to see the life her people have built for themselves, but she's torn. She expected for there to be some resentment between her and Bellamy for her leaving, but his cold shoulder troubles her.

But she takes a deep breath and tells Luna goodbye. She's done running from her problems and she's ready to face her people, to find a place amongst them again. Luna places her hand on Clarke's cheek and tells her she's always welcomed with her clan and Clarke places a hand on top of Luna's and gives it a squeeze and thanks her for everything she's done.

The Skikru travel back in one group this time and she shares a tent with her mother. She doesn't talk with Bellamy and Octavia keeps her distance but Jasper and Monty don't shy away from her and they catch her up on what's been going on in camp.

"We've created a new agricultural system. The Grounders have helped us plant and create crops for ourselves. We've also divided up new hunting grounds with them so we wouldn't trespass into each other's areas," Monty tells her.

She smiles and pulls out her book on plants.

"This probably won't help much with foods, but it does have a bunch of herbs we can use for medicines," she tells him.

"You've learned a lot during your time away," Monty says.

She grips his hand and squeezes it and offers him a small smile. "Yeah, I did."

She's amazed when they make it back to Camp Jaha. They've built houses- actual wooden houses- with doors and windows and everything and she almost cries at the sight. The rest of the 100 look happy when she walks through the gates and they crowd around her when they spot her. Their grins and their new lives and the haunted looks that no longer sit on their faces does make a few tears slip down her face and she laughs along with them as they take their turns hugging her.

Her mother invites her to stay with her but in the end she decides to stay with Raven. The two had been through alot together and she owes it to the other girl to make things right between them again.

It's awkward for a while, but Raven invited Clarke into her home and it gives her hope that the two can be as close as they were before. During the day, Clarke works with her mom and helps out in food preparation and at night she adds more to her plant books. She adds all the different foods there are to plant and which ones grow better in what seasons and where.

She finds her place. Her and Raven, after a few nights of crying and downing bottles of moonshine, move on and Raven tells Clarke she forgives her for anything Clarke might feel guilty of.

There's a council and her mother and Kane share the duties of chancellor, but they call it something different now. Kane is the president of their camp, and her mother is vice president, and they have a council. The people vote for members of council every six years and every ten they have elections for president and vice president. Bellamy is on the council and also helps Kane head their soldiers.

She's been there for almost a month before her and Bellamy finally talk again. She's sorting through medical supplies and making a list of herbs she wants to start growing when she hears shouts and Miller and Kane come rushing in, Bellamy draped between them, blood dripping from his chest. She guides them onto one of the operation tables and Miller rushes out how Bellamy was helping train a new group of guards when one of them accidently shot him in the chest.

Kane leaves as soon as Bellamy is on the table and he and her mother both come rushing in a few minutes later. She's already sterilized all the equipment and forced a herbal mix down Bellamy's throat to help keep him under.

Abby comes up beside her and side by side they remove the bullet from his chest and Clarke cauterizes the wound. She places a paste on top of it and then carefully wraps a bandage around him so it doesn't get infected.

When she's done, she looks up and sees a crowd of people. She knows if anyone else was on the operation table, her mother would've made sure the room was empty, but these are Bellamy's people and they stick together.

Her mother leaves once the bullet is out and it's only Clarke left operating on him. She's surprised when she looks up and sees the amount of people in the room. Monty and Jasper are asleep on the floor and Monroe's resting her head against Harper' shoulder. Octavia is sitting, her back against the wall and her eyes never leaving her brother's figure, Lincoln beside her. Raven and Wick are cuddled up against each other. Miller's pacing the floor and other members of the 100 are littered about the room.

"He's going to be alright," she announces to the room and she feels the relief radiate off of them. Her hands are shaking and she leaves the room. She makes it to the house she shares with Raven before she breaks down and starts crying. She finds a rag and takes a bowl of water off of the counter and scrubs Bellamy's blood off of her hands.

She doesn't hear her when she walks in, and she's startled when Octavia sits down on the ground beside her.

"I don't know how to forgive you," Octavia says. "You stood by and watched as hundreds of people died. But you did it to save Bellamy."

Octavia takes the rag from Clarke's hand and she lets the younger girl wash the blood off of her hands.

"You and my brother-that's what you two seem to do. Save each other," Octavia says.

"I needed to heal. Come to terms with what I did," Clarke says.

Octavia sighs. "I know. I'm still mad at you, though. But I need to move on, and so does my brother. We can't keep dancing around each other. I thought for so long that you were a coward, running away from everything, but I know you carried the weight of what happened more than any of us. And I'm glad you're back."

"Thank you," Clarke says.

"Bellamy's glad you're back, too, you know. It's just hard on him. He had to learn to live without you and all of a sudden, you're back," Octavia explains. "It's beaten him down, having to lead our people by himself."

"I know," Clarke says. "I know it's been hard on him. I see it in his eyes. But he did what I couldn't. He made a home for all of you."

Octavia finishes rubbing the blood from Clarke's hands and she places the rag back into the bowl. She looks up and meets Clarke's eyes with her own steady gaze.

"It wasn't home until you came back, Clarke. You and Bell, you were and always will be our leaders."

Bellamy wakes up an hour later. After cleaning her hands, Octavia decided to go get some sleep because the 'stress her brother put her under was going to give her a heart attack'. The others have left by the time she gets back into the medical area and she continues sorting through the supplies but she can't really focus.

Twenty minutes later, she hears Bellamy begin to cough and she rushes to his side. His eyes are unfocused and his breathing is shallow. She grips one of his hands and tries to shush his harsh breathing.

"Hey, Bellamy, breathe. It's me, Clarke. You were shot, but you're going to be okay," she soothes.

He grips her hand in return and his breathing slows. He groans and shifts on the bed and Clarke lightly pushes his right shoulder down. "Hey, don't move."

He focuses his eyes on hey and the panicked look drains out of them. "Clarke," he whispers.

"Yeah, it's me," she says back, rubbing his unruly curls out of his face. "You're gonna be okay."

He studies her face and looks down at the hand that's clutching her own. His grip loosens but he doesn't pull her hand away. Her heart beats faster in her chest.

"I hope so," he says. "Clarke, I wish you hadn't left."

She bites her lip but doesn't say anything, just continues to sweep the hair out of his eyes.

"But I let you go," he continues after a beat. "I let you go because I knew you would be strong enough one day to come back to us. I can't blame you for falling a part for a little while."

"I almost didn't," she admits. "But I learned how to live with it. This weight and the pain."

"I knew you would," Bellamy says. "We pulled that lever together Clarke. Everything we've done, the choices we've made, that was us, together."

"TonDC wasn't," Clarke says. "I let Lexa cloud my judgement. I left those people to die. Your sister, my mother."

Bellamy looks uncomfortable for a moment, and she knows it isn't the first time he's thought about her choice. "I know," Bellamy replies. "But sometimes we reach low points. And we all have dark sides. I can't blame you for that."

He takes in a breath and lets it out slowly. "I forgive you Clarke. I forgave you the second we brought our people home. I stand behind you then and I stand beside you now."

She thinks back to the day she left, and she lets herself feel a little sense of pride with how far she's come in healing herself. She allows herself to lean down and place a chaste kiss to Bellamy's cheek

"Whatever we face next, it'll be me and you," Clarke says, rubbing her thumb along Bellamy's knuckles.

Bellamy lets out a little chuckle. "Glad to finally be on the same page as you Princess."

She knows she lost a part of herself, part of her she will never get back, but she gained pieces of others that she will carry with her forever. And looking into Bellamy's eyes, she knows whenever she wavers in strength, she will find it within him, because it's always been the two of them together, leading their people and protecting them at all costs.

She thinks back to that day, the day Bellamy was shot, and the way she finally saw a glimpse of the man she once knew within his eyes. They grow from there, and life continues, and years later she makes the move from Raven's home to Bellamy's and they build a life together. She shows him the book and he adds his own entries. They start a routine. He writes, she draws, and they create the very first history book of their people. Decades later, their own children flip through the pages and ask questions about the people they'll never meet, and when their parents die after living a long life, they add two new entries. Bellamy and Clarke are once again reunited with their people, and their legend lasts for an eternity.

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Review! I'd love to hear what you think:)


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